Combat AI determines the challenge, pacing, and tension of any action game.

Modern games use:

• State Machines (simple AI)
• Behavior Trees (modular, readable)
• Utility AI (dynamic decisions)
• Blackboards (shared memory)
• Squad AI (formations, flanking, roles)
• Boss AI (scripted phases + BT nodes)

Lua’s flexibility makes it ideal for building AI layers.

This chapter builds:

1. Enemy archetypes
2. Finite State Machine (FSM) combat AI
3. Behavior Tree engine
4. Utility-based decision system
5. Aggro & threat systems
6. Group tactics (flank, assist, swarm)
7. Boss scripting (phases, triggers, timelines)

1. Enemy Archetypes

Define enemies in data: